Science

Science is full of concepts that are not easily understood. Often the science student is asked to think hypothetically or in theory, which may be especially difficult for the ELL. It is important for teachers of science to understand that these concepts and ideas can provide challenges for the students, and use a variety of techniques to teach them.

On this page you will find resources to help mitigate the challenges of teaching ELL’s Science.

Judie Haynes has identified several challenges of ELL's specific to each content area
(http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/challenges_ells_content_area_l_65322.php )

Some of the identified challenges for ELL’s in Science and some suggested resources:

Challenge	Resource
Vocabulary of science	An interactive science dictionary for students to learn vocabulary: http://www.hbschool.com/glossary/science/intro.html
Rapid pace of curriculum	Free science PowerPoints about various subjects- can aid in the rapid pace of the science curriculum by providing extra support http://science.pppst.com/index.html
Multi-step and difficult directions
Texts often explain too much on one page	Give many opportunities for students to further their understanding of what is in the text. This website gives excellent online activities to support different concepts: http://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/online.html
Class activities don’t always match assessment	Resource that lists many interactive science websites. The variety of activities may match your assessment techniques with development: http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interact-science.htm
Lack of experience in a lab or with equipment	Hands on lab activities, may help familiarize students with the interactive nature of science activities: http://education.jlab.org/indexpages/activity6.php
Lack of scientific method background	Great PowerPoint presentation that makes the scientific method very clear and gives practice: Scientific_Method.ppt Details Download 831 KB Website with multiple resources for teaching the scientific method and application activities: http://science.pppst.com/scientificmethod.html
Lack of standard form of delivery of information	These resources can help make a difficult delivery format more manageable by providing extension or application activities: http://tryscience.org/home.html This website has great online fieldtrips, and activities that help students to “try science” http://www.exploratorium.edu/sport/index.html Contextualizing the concept that is being taught can help ELL’s understand it better. For great sports science applications, this website is fun and educational

Additional Resources

http://www.sedl.org/scimath/pasopartners/Integrating math & science in great lessons developed specifically for ELL’s.
This article, published by NYU- Steinhardt, gives great review of challenges students have in science, as well as additional strategies teachers can use to help ELLs in science instruction

Science NYU.pdf

Differentiation in science article:

Science Differentiation.pdf